Currently unavailable

From Our Community

1 Image

“I think I’m just in the mood for comforting teas tonight. This is soooo good!!! I still think it’s like drinking warm puffed wheat. A touch a sweetener, and a splash of milk and...”
Read full tasting note

From Harney & Sons

Takashimaya was the best tea shop in New York for many years. They did a great job with teas from Japan and around the world (which we supplied.) One of Brigitte Harney’s favorite drinks was Soba. This is roasted buckwheat and is caffeine free. Its toasty flavor is a delight.

Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.

60 Tasting Notes

I think I’m just in the mood for comforting teas tonight. This is soooo good!!! I still think it’s like drinking warm puffed wheat. A touch a sweetener, and a splash of milk and it’s like hot cereal in a mug. Devine….

yep it’s like the one i found in china that we all liked so it’s on the list. However i REALLY need to keep my cupboard under control so i’m trying to refrain from any more purchases until i’m sure i can keep it under 150. I still need 17 teas to sipdown before i cover all the purchases i’ve made…and that doesn’t take into consideration the tea coming my way from a few people lol

Yeah, Joffrey’s wedding is most definitely something to look forward to. And the dragons are so great. I was sort of confused as to how they just switched the actor for Daario. It was pretty funny because all the girl’s watching noticed immediately but the guys were like “What? That isn’t the same guy?”

Cavo, my friends and I might sing it every time the theme song starts :P. And Morgana, I think both are attractive in their own right but the last one was pretty gorgeous which is why I think all the girls noticed :P

I LOVE this tea. Not necessarily just the Harney version, but I love buckwheat tea in general.

I brewed up a big 2 L pitcher of hot tea. It is a bit light tasting because I didn’t use enough buckwheat. But it is still good. It is roasty and toasty. There is a sweet honey flavour without having to add anything.

I like to make a hot brew and half-puff the buckwheat, then I do a cold brew. I find it you try to do a cold brew straight away, it doesn’t steep as good.

A friend told me a bout Tartary buckwheat tea, a different type that is grows in the high mountains, apparently has way more nutrition than common buckwheat. It was delicious! Roasted nutty aroma & a taste of cocoa. This site has lot of info on buckwheat – check it out www.mount-zen.com

So this tea is still in its probationary phase with me. And I’ve liked it, but I’m already pretty certain i won’t be restocking it. I’m also pretty certain that I’ll be doling out a lot of it to you guys, so if anyone would like some, speak up. I don’t dislike it, but I also don’t like it enough to think I need to horde it or anything. I should have known better because I don’t tend to like things that are described as “roasty”, and that descriptor has come up in pretty much everyone’s tasting note. But then I heard that people were adding milk and sugar, and you know that’s my jam, so I was willing to give it a try. And I like it better than Genmaicha, which seems to be far more savoury.

So yes, probation continues, but the sharing also starts now.

I also followed that tea up with a lot of cotton candy and a south park episode. Mmm.

Trust me guys, I have like four oz of this to send out, so there’s a lot of love to be had, soba-style. VariaTea, you’re getting some for sure, don’t worry :). between you, lala, and sil, it’ll all be gone :D. If I’m sending it out to three people, you’ll all have plenty…and then I can buy more tea! LOL

Be very afraid. There’s going to be soba cha buckwheat everywhere you look! This is what happens when I order like four oz of a tea that I’m pretty much guaranteed not to like. Yup. I’m smart. But yeah, get your soba-swim suit on!

Apparently today is my day for looking at the teas that keychange sent my way :) I pulled this one out again tonight to enjoy while watching a movie with the other half. I think i was mostly interested in something that was more savoury that any of my fruitier herbals teas. I’m super glad that keychange didn’t like this one haha because it means that it got to come live with me. I don’t often look at placing orders with Harney because for some reason in my head, i want to buy tea from the actual shop. In part because canada shipping is stupid, but i have a tea mule, so i can always ignore that…i just haven’t been as driven to order from them. I want to smell the teas! or something. Either way, i’m happy this one came to live with me, tying me over for just a little longer before i feel compelled to order with harney…maybe it’ll give me time to plan a weekend get away to NY!

After an emotional but then ultimately hopeful day we sat down to watch Le Plaisir as it was one of Kubrick’s favorite movies. Made a big pot of this for it. Husband loves it! He says it reminds him of mini-wheats (which he used to subsist on as a bachelor); for me it’s like toasty, roasty rice. Agree too that it’s kind of like the half-popped kernels of popcorn at the bottom of the bowl. Like a snack in a cup. Not sure if it was the tea or the emotional wind up and release or what, but I was sleepy as all get out after having this.

Preparation

I looooooove genmaicha, so when I saw the soba I thought, hmm… I wonder what this would be like paired with a green, oolong or white tea? So I took the plunge.

I wouldn’t drink this alone- it is not that kind of flavor for me. I’m going to use its toastiness to give new life to teas I’ve stopped drinking. First, I tried it with my new Harney & Sons Lung ching and I really like the results. Not like genmaicha, really, but obviously in the same category, adding a toasty, roasted dimension to a slightly sweet green tea. The soba doesn’t have the drama of toasted rice but subtlety doesn’t make it bad or uninteresting. I can’t wait to add it to some other teas in my collection.

I must say: I’m one of Harney & Sons’ new fans. I read up on them before buying from them and liked what I found- they are real tea experts who care about their product. I like the quality of the items I purchased- fresh and nicely packaged. Good job!

“Whoo this is an interesting smell. Whoa. I smell bread. It’s unsettling. Like, right when it comes out of the toaster before we put cashew butter. Unsettling. This is bread. It’s fine. It’s fine to drink, but I don’t know about the scent.” – Alexa

In case you guys didn’t know, I really enjoy Soba Cha. Perhaps she wasn’t ready for this type of tea. I made the evidently fatal error of thinking she had tried genmaicha before.

I find this one comforting and delicious. Whenever I get around to another H&S order, this will be part of it.

I came home from work today and I felt like I needed a cup of tea. I made a bit of Harney & Son’s Tower of London Blend (Review on that one later) and then felt like having another. This tea smelled like strong wheat – very rich, roasted and hearty grains. The taste isn’t very different from the smell. It’s a starchy kind of tea with a whole bunch of toasty flavor. What I dislike is that there is very little dimension to the tea. It’s just relatively flat.. toasty, almost like bread.. but not the good kind. I think this would be good if you paired it with some kind of food. On its own, I’m not impressed and a bit underwhelmed. Soba Cha isn’t necessarily BAD, it’s just uneventful for me.

I agree this is the kind of tea that tastes best when accompanied by food. I’ve had it many times at Korean restaurants, and it goes well with kimchi and spicy noodles, but I’m not sure if I’d want to drink it by itself. I didn’t know Harney’s made a version of it…interesting!

Many thanks to VariaTEA for sending me part of her dwindling supply of this tea. The buckwheat grains were much darker and larger than those of the other buckwheat teas I’ve tried. I think I might have used a mug that was too large for the sample that VariaTEA sent, but that’s okay.

It was roasty and nutty, but since H&S doesn’t do free shipping to Canada and since I have a whole bunch of sobacha from Yunomi, this was really just a chance to hear what the fuss was about.